Open source software design is publicly accessible. People can modify and share this software. Open source has source code which anyone can inspect, modify and enhance. It is a specific approach to create computer programmes.

An organisation that creates proprietary software maintains exclusive control over it, and only it can modify it. It is thus closed source software. Legally, original authors can copy, inspect and alter that software. Users agree to this by signing.

Open source is thus free to use software for any purpose. It is under copyleft (as against copyright) license. However, when it is modified, modified code accompanies original code. It promotes collaboration and sharing.

Open source software benefits both programmers and non-programmers. Most of Internet is built on open source technology, e.g. Linux operatin system, and Apache Web Server application.

Remote computing is cloud computing. It is a combination of local devices and network of remote computers. Cloud computing apps run on top of additional software and underneath as a platform for these apps. Cloud computing platforms can be either open source or closed source.

Open source software companies earn their revenue by charging for software services and support. It is a better proposition than charging for software as a product.

Open source software is distributed with source code, e.g. Mozilla Firefox, LibreOffice, GIMP, VLC media player, Linux and Python.

Open source Operating System’s source code is visible publicly and editable. MS Windows, Apple’s iOS and MacOS are closed source operating systems. Linux, FreeBSD and Open Solaris are open source operating Systems.

GitHub

Microsoft acquired GitHub in 2018. This company was founded in 2018. It is the costliest acquisition at a price of $7.5 billion. It is a provider of internet hosting for software development and version-control using Git. It is on this platform that most open source projects and collaborations happen. It is a watershed moment for opensource software for Microsoft to acquire GitHub.

Git is Global Information Tracker. It keeps track of your source code history. It tracks changes in any set of files used for co-ordination among programmers collaboratively developing source code.

GifHub is a cloud-based hosting service that lets you manage Git repositories. It carries open source projects that use Git. Original Git code base is entirely written in C.

GitHub archive was introduced in July, 2020. Users browse public repositories. Only registered users can contribute content to repositories. It offers unlimited private repositories at no cost since 2019.

All core GitHub features are free for everyone since 2020.

The fundamental software is Git itself. It is written by Linus Tovalds, creator of Linux. The additional software providing interface was written by Wanstrath, Hyett, and Preston-Werner.

GitHub’s main purpose is to facilitate version control. There are pull requests to propose changes to the source code. There are tracking aspects of software development.

Users can see the changes and approve them. It is called committing. A history of commits is kept.

The competitors of GitHub are Bitbucket, GitLab and SourceForge. Its mascot is Octocat with five octopus-like arms.

Red Hat

IBM acquired Red Hat, one of the biggest open source technology companies. It is enterprise open source solutions, including Linux.

Red Hat deals with storage, operating system platforms, middleware, apps, management products and support and consulting services.

It creates, maintains and contributes to many open source projects. It earns money by selling services.

Red Hat is CLI-based. For beginners, Ubuntu is easier and more convenient.

Red Hat is here since the dawn of Linux era. Its focus is on business apps rather than consumer use.

Google Cloud has built hybrid cloud with Red Hat. Since November 2013, it is Red Hat Certified Cloud provider.

India has the second largest number of developers. There are many open source projects. However, very few projects originate in India.

Backend software runs on open source. It is necessary to develop FOSS eco-system. In China they focus on quality open source projects.

Big Tech in India does little to support open source developers. Webkul is developing open source projects in India.